CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Employee satisfaction is essential to the success of any business. A high rate of employee
contentedness is directly related to a lower turnover rate. Thus, keeping employees
satisfied with their careers should be a major priority for every employer.

While this is a well known fact in management practices, economic downturns like the
current one seem to cause employers to ignore it. There are numerous reasons why
employees can become discouraged with their jobs and resign, including high stress, lack of
communication within the company, lack of recognition, or limited opportunity for growth.
Management should actively seek to improve these factors if they hope to lower their
turnover rate. Even in an economic downturn, turnover is an expense best avoided.

Dissatisfaction with the job may come from sources other than stress or poor fit between
employee and job. Employers that are deemed unethical by their workers may be viewed as
such because they appear to care exclusively about company revenues, rather than the
employees that are working for them. This perception of an employer may lead to job
dissatisfaction, and raise the company’s turnover rate.

Dissatisfaction may also arise, with the same result in turnover, when the work environment
fails to have any flexibility or any source of amusement for the employees; the tone of the
business will become stressful or tedious (Kaye & Jordan-Evans, 1999) It is important that
employers care about the happiness of their employees.

Recent statistics show that throughout their careers, American workers hold an average of
eight jobs (Rudman, 2003). The rate of turnover because employees are unhappy is
alarming. Even in an economic downturn, employers must spend an enormous amount of
money recruiting new employees, going through the hiring process, and finally training new
employees.

Dissatisfaction has many negative side effects for the company, while satisfaction results in
a much better retention rate. Happiness in the workplace leads to much higher levels of
productivity. It increases employee morale; therefore employees are more willing to work
harder to improve the company and its goals. According to Branham (2005), “Gallup studies
show that businesses with higher employee satisfaction also have:
• 86% higher customer ratings
• 76% more success in lowering turnover
• 70% higher profitability
• 44% higher profitability
• 78% better safety records.”

Companies need good, knowledgeable employees. If these employees are not treated
fairly, they are going to take advantage of other job offers that will provide more stability,
more benefits, and more compensation.
However to make improvements in employee satisfaction it is crucial to have knowledge of
employee’s view towards their company and determine factors resisting their overall
satisfaction. Only a few studies have been conducted so far in the country based on overall
job satisfaction of the employees. Hence this comparison based study surveyed a private
organization situated in Bangladesh and compared the findings with another international
company well known for their higher statistics of employee job satisfaction. In the end
effective recommendations have been made with the view to help various companies
understand and improve overall employee work environment.

1.2 Objectives:

Broad Objectives:

 The present study is aimed at making comparative analysis about satisfaction of

home organization (Ibrahim Cardiac Hospital and Research Institute) employees with
a highly recognized international organization (Hilcorp)

Specific Objectives:

 To find out overall job satisfaction of home organization (Ibrahim Cardiac Hospital
and Research Institute) compared to that of top level successful organization
(Hilcorp).
 To identify the factors responsible for satisfaction or dissatisfaction of the employees
of selected organizations.
 To study the employees perception towards organization and attitude of employee
towards their work.
 To identify the factors that motivates the employees.
 To study best practices and methods to enhance commitment and employee
retention.

1.3 Methodology

1.3.1 Data source and Information

The study is conducted based on information collected from both primary ( for home
organization) and secondary sources. Data were collected from personal interview through
a self-structured questionnaire.

1.3.2 Sample size and techniques

Ten sample was collected from Ibrahim Cardiac Hospital and Research Institute. Sample
was collected randomly on the basis of availability.

1.3.4 Research Instruments

a) Descriptive statistics: through SPSS software. Mean, standard deviations were
calculated
b) P-value: P-value was computed to find whether the data were statistically significant
c) Analysis and Results were presented through table and graphs.
1.4 Limitations

Conclusion
Management should have a positive effect on, and seek to support the happiness of, the
firm’s employees. Reasons for this are not solely to benefit the employees as companies
also stand to gain from employee satisfaction. In an economic environment like the current
one, employers often disregard the costs associated with unhappy employees, seemingly
believing that these employees are stuck in their current positions and will tolerate
unpleasant working environments. This, however, is not the case.

Many reasons for employee dissatisfaction are well within the control of the firm and good
management practices will enable a company to diminish, or remove, those reasons.
Satisfied employees will work harder for the company and plan to stay at the company,
ultimately reducing that company’s labor costs.

Top management leadership and employee empowerment are considered two of the most important
principles of total quality management (TQM) because of their assumed relationship with customer
satisfaction. As a result, many top management leadership and employee empowerment strategies and
practices have been suggested in the management literature. However, few studies have been done to
test this assumed relationship and determine which of these strategies and practices may be most
effective in bringing about the intended results. This study surveyed organizations that have adopted
TQM to determine the relationship between top management leadership, employees' empowerment,
job satisfaction, and customers' satisfaction. The results reveal positive correlation between top
management leadership, employee empowerment, job satisfaction, and customer satisfaction.
Employee empowerment and improved levels of job satisfaction are facilitated by top management
leadership and commitment to the TQM goal of customer satisfaction by creating an organizational
climate that emphasizes total quality and customer satisfaction. Effective strategies for achieving
employee empowerment and job satisfaction, together with top management leadership roles in a TQM
environment, are identified and discussed.